In your experience- which discipline has the worst riders?

In your personal experience which discipline has worst riding?

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I think your list has missed the worst riders. Certain endurance riders in certain parts of the world are, imvho, the very worst in the world.
 
I put local showjumpers too but all can be awful. Somewhat surprised at the natural horseman comments as those that do ride are usually considerate I suppose it is those to closed minded to pick the best and leave the rest that are the issue and those that use it as an excuse not to ride at all and try to make out everyone else is cruel
 
Tiddlypom said:
Low end SJ and dressage are pretty awful, aren't they.

In contrast, I'd like to commend low level BE competitors for being nice and looking like they are enjoying themselves, whilst looking after their horses. I do a bit of volunteeering at BE, and always have a great day.
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Agree with you, the few BE events i've been to have been a pleasure, lovely people, nice attitudes, and some great sympathetic riding
 
I'd go for the show jumping as well. The only result needed for show jumping is a clear round, how it is achieved doesn't matter. Although the judges will do something if the riding is really awful or there is a welfare issue - or should do anyway.

If you are doing dressage then the judge comments on the riding as part of the test and if you want to improve most people would go to an instructor which would hopefully improve things.

Western dressage - well they certainly shouldn't be pulling the horses around! So I guess that would be a minority. Ditto the natural horsemanship people, their intentions are generally good.

Eventing, well due to the demands of the competition and ifyou are paying out £100 to enter, then overall the riding is good. Again, all the stewards and officials are really looking out for bad things and there is lots of help on offer.

Ironically though, I really think that show jumping well is the hardest thing of all!
 
All disciplines have poor/cruel riders. It's hard to say which one is the worst as it appears, in my humble opinion, that it's fairly even across the board.

Broc said:
I would go for western riders, it really churns my stomach to see the poor horses yanked around.
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Another vote for Western riders here. I can't abide the western riding style. It's lazy riding using chunky bits, spurs and overly heavy saddles as a substitute for decent riding skills.

I know a bit is only as cruel as the hands behind it and there are plenty of English style riders who are poor or cruel, but I've never seen a western style rider who could actually ride.
 
Do you know anything about Western Riding, or have you just observed it? The heavy saddle distributes the weight of the rider (army saddles are similar, if smaller, for carrying a rider and kit for long hours). It also provides a secure base for the cowboy to do his job and catch and hold cattle using the saddle horn. It is comfortable for the rider to spend long hours in the saddle and is padded so that it doesn't rub the horse when it is used for long hours.

In western riding the horse and tack and riding style is for working. The horse has to obey light aids and quickly, to be as easy to ride. When a western horse is given an aid for a pace, it is supposed to maintain that pace until told different, no nagging or interference from the rider.

I suppose you are thinking about western games when things get a bit frantic but I guess that is what happens when everyone gets excited.

I think if you do some research you will find some dressage riders who have ridden western horses have been utterly amazed at how light and obedient to the aids they are. I have a picture in my tack room of a "cowboy" riding a lovely TB. He has only a rein weight contact on the bit, the horse's head is in the perfect "dressage" position, one ear is forward, one ear is back like he is listening and concentrating on the rider, and he is doing a perfect collected canter.

I went to a Mark Rashid clinic where he helped someone who had a problem with a dressage horse doing lead changes in canter, it wasn't always geting them or being late to change on one leg. After a few minutes with this "cowboy" who suggested that the rider did something a bit different with their weight aids, the horse was doing them perfectly.
 
VikingSong said:
All disciplines have poor/cruel riders. It's hard to say which one is the worst as it appears, in my humble opinion, that it's fairly even across the board.



Another vote for Western riders here. I can't abide the western riding style. It's lazy riding using chunky bits, spurs and overly heavy saddles as a substitute for decent riding skills.

I know a bit is only as cruel as the hands behind it and there are plenty of English style riders who are poor or cruel, but I've never seen a western style rider who could actually ride.
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This is gobstoppingly ignorant: there are many, many excellent Western riders and trainers who could ride rings around the majority of "English" style riders.
 
irishdraft said:
No ones mentioned hunting some pretty terrible riding seen there
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It is largely hidden... not exactly a spectator sport. When you do spectate though, you are sometimes rewarded with some fantastic comeuppances - always satisfying :D

Often I think riders ought to be put through the hunting test in just a snaffle before embarking on a riding hobby. Snarf!
 
There isn't one discipline that has the worst riders really. There are bad riders in all areas and if you only frequently go to one or two your view will be skewed towards them. But a bad rider is a bad rider regardless of discipline.

I would love to see some of these people in jumping go up against a friend of mine. Really good rider and talented horse. They use the basic tack and win pretty much every time at 1m and higher. The horse must shock a lot of people as he doesn't move the fanciest way possible but he gets the job done and I don't think I have ever seen him knock a pole he is very careful. She doesn't use spurs either doesn't need them.

We oddly don't seem to get many bad riders up here or at least not to the extremes mentioned on here. I have seen people have meltdowns before a show has even started which was quite hilarious. That was our first show too didn't put me off. Will still go again for fun.

I did know of a rider who put spurs on with their new horse in an attempt i think to liven it up. Did the trick it started bucking. It didn't need spurs but they prefer their horses to have more spirit and the horse was too well behaved for them. No I don't understand that either haha.
 
Cortez said:
This is gobstoppingly ignorant: there are many, many excellent Western riders and trainers who could ride rings around the majority of "English" style riders.
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This is true (and I would say the same for many an Australian bush horseman too). But that said, I will admit to voting for Western in the poll. I had in mind Western Pleasure competition when I voted. What modern WP competing has become with those poor horses hobbling around in ridiculous, unnatural positions and gaits is an abomination and not anything much to do with what WP is supposed to be about.

You can't really lump all Western disciplines together under one catch-all term any more than you can lump together dressage, xc, jumping, games, showing, etc, call it all English and assume it's all the same.
 
LadySam said:
This is true (and I would say the same for many an Australian bush horseman too). But that said, I will admit to voting for Western in the poll. I had in mind Western Pleasure competition when I voted. What modern WP competing has become with those poor horses hobbling around in ridiculous, unnatural positions and gaits is an abomination and not anything much to do with what WP is supposed to be about.

You can't really lump all Western disciplines together under one catch-all term any more than you can lump together dressage, xc, jumping, games, showing, etc, call it all English and assume it's all the same.
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Yes, meant the pleasure competitors in my reply, I think competition brings the worst out of a lot of riders regardless of discipline.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Low end SJ and dressage are pretty awful, aren't they.

In contrast, I'd like to commend low level BE competitors for being nice and looking like they are enjoying themselves, whilst looking after their horses. I do a bit of volunteeering at BE, and always have a great day.
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I genuinely enjoy volunteering for BE. I 99.9% of the time get a smile and a thank you :)
 
I agree with pansymouse. We have experience with pony club games and MGA . A lot of the riding is shocking . They are restricted with the use of bits but the ponies are still allowed to have their heads strapped tight down to stop them avoiding the bit !! .
Showjumping at the lower levels is pretty eyewatering at times but they do seem to get their comeuppance more often .
 
As to the standard of riding in general, anyone seen that vid doing the rounds on fb? 4 year old dressage horses in Sweden, all horribly overbent in the warm up.
CDJ rides some of them later in the video and the difference is amazing.
Just how do you get through to people?
 
I think that the riders with the worst discipline in the warm up area, who have no consideration for anyone else & whose eyes are fixed between their horses ears are dressage riders.

When we are at Show jumping venues the arenas may be crowded but most riders are aware of what is happening around them. At dressage venues we are cut up so many times by inconsiderate riding it's a wonder there are not more collisions. They are 'in the zone' but sometimes they have to look outside 'the zone' so they don't injure someone or themselves.
 
Another vote for show jumping here, also that c**p you see in the US of tiny kids on massive horses with massive bits just because it looks better to be on a big fancy horse.

The reason eventers are so nice to our horses is because we're all to freaked about the XC to do anything other than be as nice as possible to the horses that has to get us round it...tehehe... In all seriousness though, I know some really really lovely riders, and some really horrid riders, and I have to say, most of those lovely ones are event riders...
 
Unfortunately, the American TWH (I don't know the proper name of them!) Big Lick riders aren't on the list. I think any rider that purposefully puts on heavy, painful shoes, purposefully puts battery acid and chains on their horse to lame their legs and rides with massive shanked bits is a horrendous rider - especially when they defend their practice as being desirable, the best way to train, tradition etc. and continue in these illegal practices. TWH are gorgeous movers without those horrible, lame gaits they seem to enjoy with big men hunched over on their backs. I can't watch them even in the videos 'exposing' and speaking out as it looks as if their back ends are collapsing underneath them.

For the poll, I voted showjumping. I won't get into it, but the warmups at local/very low level are bad enough that I dread them and hope I can find a space when everyone else is out examining the course so that B doesn't get fizzed up or upset by ponies and horses whizzing round and so I don't have to worry about pulling out of jumps because someone is stood round chatting/a parent has whacked them up as I am approaching without asking if I am using it/someone has decided to cut in in front of me and jump as I am approaching.
 
Cortez said:
This is gobstoppingly ignorant: there are many, many excellent Western riders and trainers who could ride rings around the majority of "English" style riders.
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This.

We often use a John Lyons trained Western Rider. In local Western riding competitions he always wins. Put him on one of my Cleveland Bays with and English saddle and a snaffle bridle and watch this superb rider who does not move in the saddle but gets three beautiful paces. He also always works in hand before he rides, a comment on this technique from someone on the Sylvia Loch, Classical Dressage FB page "Good riders always do."
 
sasquatch they are riding saddleseat, not the preserve of TWH, they do it for morgans, saddlebreds, arabs etc too but it isn't pretty on any breed IMO.
 
I'm not voting, I've seen shocking riding everywhere.

TBH low level eventing I've seen some awful sights, people who seem genuinely terrified with the prospect of leaving the ground and as a result take it out on the horse.
 
I guess not many of us get to see a lot of ones who are not out competing, but from my limited experience there is a lot that goes on out of the public eye!
 
I haven't shown much as the few shows I went to were terrible experiences. However, that said I think the worst is the level at which riders have some knowledge but not enough to know how much they still don't know. The amateur who thinks they know more than they do. And I've met these in every discipline. Simply from confirmation bias, because most of the riders I know are not showing, or are Western pleasure (not competition) I'd have picked those two. But I just know fewer in the competition world.

That said, in reference to the comments about Western riding, there's a show back home every year where a dressage horse and a reiner are put in the arena together to do a demo. And it's beautiful. In my experience a well trained western horse responds to the lightest aids and to ride them you have to be just as good. I've met an awful lot of english style riders who couldn't do it. A good western rider is no lazier than a good english rider. Those "big bits" are not meant to have constant rider contact and if they're yanking they're doing it wrong. The saddles distribute weight for long riding, and working. Take a look at an endurance saddle, same principles apply.

Have to agree with the comments about any natural horsemanship "trainer" who has learned the "P---- way". I find them to be dangerous to themselves, their horses, and everyone around them most of the time. I've known too many who believe that being 8th level (or whatever) means they know everything there is to know.
 
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Cortez said:
Umm, all of them? IF, and I emphasize this, IF riders are not properly taught/not experienced/overhorsed then any and every discipline is painful to watch. What has happened to the teaching of riding and horsemanship? Perhaps that would be a better poll.
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^^^^^
Totally this!
Bad riding and poor horsemanship can not be linked to any one discipline.
I also see nothing wrong with someone who enjoys working on the ground with their horse and doesn't ride that much. up to them.
 
ester said:
sasquatch they are riding saddleseat, not the preserve of TWH, they do it for morgans, saddlebreds, arabs etc too but it isn't pretty on any breed IMO.
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how awful :(
I wasn't sure if Big Lick shows had a different name than Saddleseat, I haven't seen much of saddlebred/morgan showing, but have seen some of the clips of the horrors of TWH showing
 
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